Navy boxer Benjamin Dobbs wants to be the best

Having faced the best, boxer Benjamin Dobbs wants to be the best

Benjaman Dobbs will step into the ring at the Casa Blanca Resort in Mesquite, Nev., on Sunday in hopes of walking away with the Golden Gloves heavyweight championship. Dobbs is a sailor stationed on the USS Ronald Reagan and trains with local boxing legends Louis and Mark Romo.
(Steve Zugschwerdt / Special to the Kitsap Sun)

PORT ORCHARD - Amateur heavyweight boxer Benjamin Dobbs threw quick punches, a sharp left hook and a straight right, into the boxing mitts of coach Mark Romo. A poster of Muhammad Ali standing over the fallen Sonny Listen stood guard over the pair sparring in the boxing ring at Cal Gilbert's Boxing Academy.

Mark's father, Louie Romo, who owns the building and has been in and out of amateur boxing dating back to the 1970s, stood ringside and basked in the rising shadow of Dobbs, a Navy man who will box in the week-long Golden Gloves National Championships, which start on Sunday in Mesquite, Nev.

Dobbs, 31, is a 6-foot-2, 188-pound heavyweight stationed on the USS Ronald Reagan. He's made it through two previous qualifying stages of Golden Gloves and is now on the cusp of winning a national title.

Dobbs doesn't have a fancy record (11-10), but he's never had a boxing coach before, and since joining up with the Romos has shown remarkable improvement. He has won his last four bouts, three by knockout.

"He kicked butt at the Tacoma Golden Gloves and won the Golden Boy Award," Mark Romo said of Dobbs, who grew up in Indianapolis, Ind. "He had two fights and knocked the first guy out in the second round and next guy in the third round."

That put Dobbs into the Golden Gloves Regional Tournament at South Point Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, where he became the first local boxer to advance to the Golden Gloves nationals since Mark Romo did it in 1989 and 1991 (Romo reached the quarterfinals as a 139-pounder in Miami).

Louie Romo turned the gym at his Port Orchard home into a training facility in 1985, and it is where Dobbs has been training for the last two-and-a-half months. Mark Romo, who has stepped back into the boxing scene after some time away from it, is training him.

Mark now carries 280-pounds on his frame and works up a good sweat while letting Dobbs pound away with lightening fast jabs, hooks and straight rights into the training mitts that are used as targets.

Dobbs has come a long way in the fight game. He started out in 2004, five years after graduating from North Central High School in Indianapolis.

"My first fight, oh my gosh, the honest truth, I lost my first fight," said Dobbs, who is a Petty Officer Second Class with the Navy and works in mass communications. "And I lost my first fight by forfeit. You know what, it was just flat-out fear. There is no other reason why you would quit a fight.

"I believe that just as high as a person can achieve and be a champion, they can go in the opposite direction as well. The gambit goes in both directions. I really had to learn how to buckle down and be tough, and do things right. Right now I'm regional champion and own three state titles (Washington, Oregon, Nevada), but it's definitely something that had to be developed. I think I had natural skills, but in boxing it's the mental aspect that separates the winner from the loser.

"When I had the first fight, I was not accustomed to having that mental maturity to stay in the fight, and to bring the fight to that opponent. It was a learning experience for me. I know I have come a long way, but I'm still embarrassed by that fight."

In the fight game it's not enough to have natural skills. A boxer has to learn how to move from side to side, protect the chin, attack from different angles, slip punches, develop leverage on punches, set up opponents, and more.

That's what Mark Romo has been working with Dobbs on.

"He listens very well," Romo sasid. "He tries to do what we tell him and is a hard worker."

Dobbs comes from a solid family.

"You know what, my life was pretty easy," said the youngest of five children of Roy and Sharon Dobbs. "I had two parents who really loved me and raised me right. My family was into sports. Two of my sisters ran track in college and both played basketball. My brother (Roy Dobbs Jr.) is a principal at a high school in Indianapolis."

Dobbs played basketball through middle school, but didn't play in high school for a team that won a state championship. Along the way he became a big fan of boxing, of Mike Tyson in particular.

"All through my life I played video games, watched fights on pay-per-view, (then I) went to a couple pro fights and started to think, 'Hey, I can do this,'" said Dobbs.

He enrolled at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, but found it difficult to juggle school, two jobs and a budding boxing career. He left school and joined the Navy to build a career and restore some stability to his life, while continuing with his boxing career.

After his embarrassing first fight, Dobbs got the hang of it. But wins didn't come easily. He fought against some tough amateurs, including Dorian "The Truth" Anthony — a national champion and the only fighter to register a knockout win over Dobbs.

"It was the first round," recalls Dobbs. "It was rough. But it was the only time I have been knocked out. But it's part of my story, part of the mix. When you are making a cake, it's one of those ingredients."

He lost a close decision to Javier "The Monster" Torres, who was on the 2008 Mexican Olympic Boxing team, in his next fight — a Navy box-off at Port Hueneme, CA.

"The fight was very, very close, and he won a tie-breaker," he said. "That fight gave me a lot of confidence because I came back from a knockout loss, an embarrassing knockout loss, and I fought an Olympian and I went the distance."

Dobbs' next fight was against Army's Jeffrey Spencer, another national champion, and he lost 18-4 in the 2009 Armed Forces Boxing Championships held at Fort Huachuca, Az.

Dobbs, now in his eighth year as a boxer, has learned from those setbacks.

"People, they might underestimate me," Dobbs says. "They don't understand my maturation process. I went against U.S. national champions, Mexican Olympian, military champions, and while I have taken losses, I'm actually taking victories from those losses and taken the lessons I have learned in against lesser opponents."

The experience of going against the best and the coaching he is now getting from the Romos has given him the confidence he needs to do well at the Golden Gloves Nationals.

"I think I'm on the right path and I want to keep things rolling," Dobbs said. "I'm just living in the moment. Nobody knows when their last breath is coming, so I'm living in the moment. The only thing that matters to me is my next fight, my next opponent."

Dobbs' goal is to fight until he's 35, then transition into being a coach.

"There are so many great fighters in the Golden Gloves. I know I might run into the next future great Hall of Fame fighter in this tournament, but my goal is to make a big dent in this tournament and maybe win it all," he said. "I don't want to disappoint Navy Pride."